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Topic: Hard week-need help (Read 1237 times)

Mondays are tough and my girlfriend is gone for a whole week. I have work his weekend, too. I went to bed last night to my finger twitching four times! Super freaky. Then my leg was twitching this morning near the knee and I'm super bummed. I feel like this is truly als. It's been over five months since the twitching started and it's still here, how's this possible? It has to be something sinister. Nothing else has ever stuck around this long.... Woke up Sunday super sore in my left arm and today my right arm is sensitive to the touch. I just don't get it..

It is extremely bizarre (and for those of us with HA, very upsetting) to see and feel muscles twitch. I too felt absolutely certain that something was horribly wrong. And I was right ... but what's horribly wrong with me is ANXIETY. For you, too, it is extremely unlikely to be anything other than ANXIETY.

By the way -- my sibling also has an anxiety disorder, though more of a social anxiety disorder. I was talking about my relentless finger twitches. Sibling was like, "Oh, yeah. Happens to me all the time. I think it's weird, but kind of cool." Said in the most indifferent tone possible! After I got over my shock that someone could receive a Sign of Certain Death with such nonchalance , that response helped me to see that HA is distorting my thinking terribly on this topic.

If you haven't already, google and find another forum where people with BFS post. I read a bit last year, and it was illuminating.

It is extremely bizarre (and for those of us with HA, very upsetting) to see and feel muscles twitch. I too felt absolutely certain that something was horribly wrong. And I was right ... but what's horribly wrong with me is ANXIETY. For you, too, it is extremely unlikely to be anything other than ANXIETY.

By the way -- my sibling also has an anxiety disorder, though more of a social anxiety disorder. I was talking about my relentless finger twitches. Sibling was like, "Oh, yeah. Happens to me all the time. I think it's weird, but kind of cool." Said in the most indifferent tone possible! After I got over my shock that someone could receive a Sign of Certain Death with such nonchalance , that response helped me to see that HA is distorting my thinking terribly on this topic.

If you haven't already, google and find another forum where people with BFS post. I read a bit last year, and it was illuminating.

Do your twitches ever stop? I'm hoping mine dissipate completely, but I don't know how common it is for them to stop entirely or how long I might have to wait for them to. I also don't know whether this is anxiety-caused or caused by another factor like 'autoimmune' that BFSers like to speculate about.

Yes, the twitches do sometimes stop. But honestly, during my first bout with it, they didn't truly stop for seven or eight months.

There is not perfect correlation, but for me, in general, lower anxiety over time = fewer twitches.

In my experience, looking for the underlying cause, or thinking about what could be causing it, has been nothing but anxiety fodder. Autoimmune response, dehydration, mineral deficiencies, "excessive" exercise ... After going down all those roads in my mind, I've determined that for me, seeking the "underlying cause" is a version of reassurance-seeking which does not allay, but instead feeds anxiety. I just need to accept, and continue to accept, that I have anxiety, which causes REAL physical symptoms.

And yes -- I too have created symptoms with my mind. Entirely possible. And I am a very logical person.

Yes, the twitches do sometimes stop. But honestly, during my first bout with it, they didn't truly stop for seven or eight months.

There is not perfect correlation, but for me, in general, lower anxiety over time = fewer twitches.

In my experience, looking for the underlying cause, or thinking about what could be causing it, has been nothing but anxiety fodder. Autoimmune response, dehydration, mineral deficiencies, "excessive" exercise ... After going down all those roads in my mind, I've determined that for me, seeking the "underlying cause" is a version of reassurance-seeking which does not allay, but instead feeds anxiety. I just need to accept, and continue to accept, that I have anxiety, which causes REAL physical symptoms.

And yes -- I too have created symptoms with my mind. Entirely possible. And I am a very logical person.

MOST anxiety occurs on a subconscious level. JUST because you don't feel consciously anxious or had a day or two of calm doesn't mean your mind & body are relaxed. It can take months of reduced anxiety before a body goes back to a more non-reactive state

and dear lord if twitching was a game ender, I would have died back in '97.

NK, respectfully YOUR anxious over thinking, your monitoring of your body and reassurance seeking is what is keeping you in the anxiety loop.

while I know right now this will be a hard task for you..... but in moments of calm try to look at what is going on in your life (and I don't mean symptoms). A stressful life ---financial issues, relationship issues, school, environment-- are often what is at the core of the anxiety. Then take a look at your upbringing, how do you generally cope with stress. How do you solve problems. things ignored or swept under the rug, eventually come back to bite you in the bum. Sometimes just a really full plate can tip a mind/body over the edge. If you take a careful look (and you are honest with yourself) you will find clues to what really set off all of this. AND how the ensuing panic over the anxiety symptoms became ALS.

In the end no one here, no doctor or medical test, no one in your life will convince you that you are not suffering from ALS or whatever new ailment replaces this one. You are going to have to come to this conclusion on your own.

MOST anxiety occurs on a subconscious level. JUST because you don't feel consciously anxious or had a day or two of calm doesn't mean your mind & body are relaxed. It can take months of reduced anxiety before a body goes back to a more non-reactive state

Depends on the day for me. Mondays always been bad. I still think about how I couldn't open a sealed ham package two months ago. Eventually I got it with my teeth and hands. Even though the bet one I bought I opened with ease, still freaks me out. Also the apple juice my brother opened for me and his gf also couldn't open, weird! Last week my gf had to open some chicken nuggets for me and I re looked at the bag and opened it from the other side. Although, she did have me open something for her last week.